About

Jacqueline Rayner is the author of over forty books and audio plays, including number one bestseller The Stone Rose, the highest-selling Doctor Who novel of all time. She lives in Essex with her husband and twin sons.

There, that’s the blurby bit I give whenever I’m asked for an author biog. Should you be interested, however, here’s a bit more info.

As a child, my main interests were reading, Doctor Who, Dungeons and Dragons and comedy. It therefore seemed clear to me that when I grew up I should obviously become either a writer, a Doctor Who companion, an adventurer, or the token female in a comedy troupe. Unfortunately, it turned out that I was absolutely hopeless at running (which ruled out two of those), and by the time I was an adult, comedy acts had discovered it was possible to have more than one woman in them! So writing it would have to be. Luckily I have cunningly managed to combine all my interests by writing about Doctor Who, dragons and, very occasionally, dungeons, sometimes even trying to be very slightly funny.

I briefly detoured into studying Ancient History at the University of Nottingham where I spent an awful lot of time waving around a rubber sword, pretending to cast spells at other people who were also waving around rubber swords, then did a PGCE in History before becoming assistant to the now mega-famous Steve ‘Astrosaurs’ Cole at BBC Books, where I remained as an editor for seven years. Shortly after I’d joined BBC Books, I discovered that a company called Big Finish were planning to make audio dramas featuring the adventuring archaeologist Bernice Summerfield. So I rang producer Gary Russell (of whom I’d had many, many posters in my childhood bedroom in his role as Dick from Southern TV’s Famous Five) and asked if I could write them for him. Despite my having no professional writing experience whatsoever, he foolishly agreed. My writing career had begun! I’ve gone on to write a pile of books ‘n’ audios ‘n’ comic strips ‘n’ stories ‘n’ stuff, many of which are listed here. Some of them are even quite good, but I’m not going to tell you which ones. Think of it as a kind of literary lucky dip.

While I was at BBC Books, Doctor Who Magazine editor Gary Gillatt approached me and asked if I’d like to take part in a radical new project to document the changing hairstyles of four Doctor Who fans. The feature ran for ten years until someone noticed that only me (and Clay a bit) had changed our hair at all. But we’d had a blast. I’ve continued writing for Doctor Who Magazine including most recently the ‘Countdown to 50!’ articles documenting every season up to the programme’s fiftieth anniversary, and the monthly column ‘Relative Dimensions’, a jolly look at Doctor Who and family life.

The future, I am convinced, holds lots of Very Exciting Things, so keep an eye on the News and Blog for forthcoming projects (should you be so inclined), and please do come and chat on Twitter @GirlFromBlupo.